1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 51 



I 



Government with which to approach the Dominion Government in any 

 attempts to arrest the Provincial policy. The delay in promulgation 

 has up to the present apparently been due to the efforts of representa- 

 tives of certain of the fishing interests in the United States Senate, who 

 claim that their particular localities will suffer through the restrictions 

 imposed by the code, and in view of the fact that total or even partial 

 prohibition of export of Ontario fish would adversely affect a very much 

 greater number of American citizens than could the code, it is only 

 reasonable to suppose that the hands of the present opponents of the 

 code would be strengthened by many additional recruits, anxious to 

 weild the sword of a prospective international code against the buckler 

 of Ontario's domestic necessities. The Dominion Government, however, 

 on which the brunt of international pressure must fall, has in the crea- 

 tion of its Commission of Conservation and in many other ways given 

 evidence of the lively interest taken by it in all matters affecting the con- 

 servation of natural resources, and it is impossible to conceive that it 

 could view otherwise than favourably the determination of the Provin- 

 cial Government to conserve and exploit the fisheries of the great lakes 

 on a fundamentally economic basis. Indeed, the whole question of the 

 commercial fisheries of the great lakes is growing yearly in national and 

 international importance to such an extent that it is doubtful whether 

 any other course would be open to the Dominion Government than to 

 endorse, as^st, and forward a progressive Provincial fisheries policy by 

 every means in its power, for obstruction on its part could not but be 

 adjudged a retrogressive action by the great bulk of the Canadian people 

 affected. The vital necessity for Ontario to secure for her present and 

 future population the economic benefits from a magnificent commercial 

 fishery must be apparent to every thinking citizen of Canada, and 

 especially to its administrations, as likewise that tinkering with this 

 gi'eat economic problem will never bring about its satisfactory elucida- 

 tion. Hence it may at least safely be deemed improbable that the 

 Dominion Government will either throw obstacles in the way, or chal- 

 lenge Ontario's authority to seek its solution by drastic measures, but 

 will tender the Province its cordial co-operation to the extent of itself 

 enacting such measures as the Provincial policy may require, and to the 

 extent also of withstanding any international pressure that may be 

 brought to bear to frustrate it. 



In regard to the purely domestic political situation, it has already 

 been pointed out that outside of the monopolies the only class that could 

 be even temporarily adversely affected by the adoption of a forward and 

 forceful fisheries policy would be the commercial net fishermen, who 

 were either operating in certain restricted areas which it might be 

 deemed expedient to close against commercial net fishing, or else under 

 a prohibition of export measure were compelled to abandon their calling 

 owing to a temporary lessening in the demand for fish. The numbers of 

 these men are very small in comparison with the total population of the 



